Swiss deep-sea explorer and engineer Jacques Piccard, who reached the deepest depths of the world's oceans and pioneered the construction of deep-diving submersibles, died this weekend at the age of 86, in his Lake Geneva home.

Piccard's legacy reaches from the depths of the ocean to the heights of space. His work on submersibles was funded by the US Navy, who used his designs to build later subs, while an epic month-long underwater mission he undertook helped NASA learn how to keep people working in cramped space stations for long periods.